Photo Challenge OLD

Well, this is a very timely photo challenge...especially as I don't really have anything old enough, or interesting enough particularly to show you...apart from ....

We all get old don't we?
Even our family pets.


And I am sorry if this makes you sad, because it made us sad during the week, our Abbey got so old and so not well, and badly distressed during our first and very bad thunderstorm during the week, that she had to be taken to the Vet for the last time, where they very kindly put her gently to sleep for the last time.

Very sad, but I guess that is the way life goes for us with pets. She was a great old family pet. She would have celebrated her 14th birthday on Christmas Eve this year. Every Christmas we would say Abbey Christmas...and Abbey Birthday!

I thank God for her 14 wonderful years and am very happy to be able to share these images of our wonderful OLD Abbey and a few little stories along the way.

First I must start at the beginning, and of a small girl who would have dearly liked a doggie as a pet, but her Mummy kept saying no because we lived in the city on a very busy intersection with no front fence (and no spare money to build one). We had had doggies before when we lived in the country (Toowoomba.. on 80 blissful acres) and in Darwin (5 blissful acres...the dog had to be transported there in the trailer behind the car when we shifted)...but that wasn't the Abbey the Labbey dog...that was Speedy, another labbey dog..and a different story!

Well, when Mummy saw the movie Shadowlands, about the famous British author CS Lewis,
and how he had married an American woman who was dying of cancer, this Mummy was particularly struck by the last scene where Joy his wife had died, and he had just bought Joy's little son a dog!

mmm...food for thought, and so after two years of daughter asking and pleading and sitting on the bed, reading the ads from the paper every Saturday morning, Mummy relented, and to cut a long story short, we found Abbey the puppy on Bribie Island, on one of our rare but beautiful short family holidays to the North Coast and the lovely Shelley Beach house of a friend.

Abbbey was loved by all. She was a great dog. She also loved the beach when we went there sometimes, or the bayside if I was taking Mum for a drive..Abbey would come along too!

And she only developed a fetish for socks, which I was very pleased about, and not shoes, (which could have been expensive)! And then the socks were only very lovingly chewed mostly and shifted from A to B. A being where Annie left them, usually on the floor, and B being where Abbey left them..usually on or near her bed or sleeping spot.

Being a labrador, she also had a fondness for food, and if any of you have had or known a Labrador, you will know what I am talking about.

Suffice it to say that Abbey lived for her food, and was known to help herself to any food accidentally left lying around within her reach...whole loaves of bread, packets of biscuits, even a whole cake only just bought by my sister in law once when we were at the beach together (again no front fence , dog has to be tied up outside or inside). Not just any old cake, but a beautiful cream filled Bee Sting cake.


One Easter she ate a small cake of soap on Good Friday (it accidentally slipped out of my hand , and I could never find it again), and on the Easter Sunday she helped herself to one of the kids Easter eggs...14 small ones in a packet beside his bed!

Well, moving right on from the food incidents, of which there were many more....she certainly had a cast iron stomach!

I have one of these photos I found from last year called "Abbey the escapee"....at a time when she was delighting in escaping from a small gap in the fence. One day I got home and she was not at home, and so I called and called out on the front footpath (I'm sorry, that is what we call them here in Queensland, you will have to get used to it...I know they are nature strips in Victoria, and sidewalks in America)...and I was rewarded by a dripping wet Abbey who came diving across said busy road (no traffic at 2pm in the afternoon , thank the Lord)...from out of the house over the road...owned by a Judge and his wife! mmm never did hear from them about strange dogs jumping in their pool, luckily!

Talking about jumping in pools, Abbey delighted in it, and I think that was one reason that she lasted so long with her recent breathing problems (laryngeal paralysis) for so long, because she loved to, and insisted on, jumping in the pool every afternoon (in the summer) after her walk to cool off.

Of course of late there has been no walk of consequence...only a stroll over the road (on a leash) to have a sniff (I used to say she was reading her p-mail, )...and back again. I knew she wouldn't last long this year, as she wouldn't jump in the pool at all since it has turned warm. I would open the gate and stand there with her, fully prepared to jump in fully clothed if she needed help getting out, but no she declined each time! The vet was surprised at how long she lasted...and said that labradors and another breed, was it cattle dogs or border collies , often have more endurance and can last longer with these things (diseases etc) than other breeds.

Be that as it may, it has been a roller coaster ride these last few months with Abbey, with the vet warning me she wouldn't last out the summer, and me hoping she would last till Jo and family came home for a short holiday at Christmas. However that was not to be, and I find myself discovering that now when I vacuum the house, it actually stays clean...and that I actually have time to do things again. It had got to the stage that if Abbey was downstairs I would have to find things to do downstairs, so she wouldn't try to follow me upstairs again, at least till she had had a sleep and had a bit more puff to get up the steps! I think on her last day she went up and down the steps several times with me that morning, with sides heaving to get enough breath when she got to the top.
So it is sad to get OLD , isn't it, but life is great still, and I know Abbey enjoyed every minute of hers. Giving great enjoyment to those of us who knew her.

Abbey asleep in the kitchen doorway.






Just last week outside ...enjoying the cool....luckily the last week has been quite cool!

Abbey loved to be outside watching the passing parade of people and especially dogs too! It looks like fall there with all those leaves. Those are the leaves off the poor OLD fiddlewood, that is suffering from a lack of water..from the drought and water restrictions we have here at the moment. Normally it would be very green and very shady for the summer. Times are a changin'.

So please forgive me for rambling on about my dear OLD Abbey. She never seemed old to me, as she was still wanting to eat eat eat...and still running up and down the steps...even despite her lack of oxygen at times! I will miss her lots , I miss her already, and one day I hope that I might have another dog...(don't tell but it might be another labrador, I hope)...but not just yet. I need time to clean up this poor OLD house, maybe shift, maybe another trip to see the kids without kennel fees. Maybe I might be able to concentrate on getting my poor OLD shoulder better too!

Maybe one day I might be able to get some photos scanned of when she was a puppy and a very cute one too, of her jumping in the pool, and enjoying a run and a swim at the beach. Oh what fun we had!

Donna at Made in heaven is our host for this week's challenge...thanks Donna